2017 marked the 10 year anniversary of Google Street View.

Many of us have seen the iconic cars driving by, and even more have scoped out the imagery collected by the vehicles - from iconic monuments, to the house you grew up in. Well, the Street View cars just got a new look, and a major upgrade. Hello, 140 pixels. In 10 years, the cars have driven millions of miles and mapped over 80 countries. This year marks a new beginning to that ongoing journey. See the cars in this video, and explore the world at https://www.google.com/streetview

It took months for the imagery to be collected and months to get all the data collated, but Google Street View has finally added Malta to the 83 countries already available.Google collected its imagery over a few months in late 2016. The Street View car drove 2,500 km across the central and south-eastern parts of Malta and all around Gozo, taking 360 degrees pics of many locations, including heritage and touristic attractions, from Valletta to Victoria.

Street View is a popular feature of Google Maps which was launched in May 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expanded to include cities and rural areas worldwide. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. Streets with Street View imagery available are shown as blue lines on Google Maps.

Google applies state-of-the-art technology to help identify and blur individual faces and licence plates on any imagery before it is made public. Once Street View imagery is available online, users can ask for further blurring.

To use Google Street View, drag the icon of a yellow man from the bottom right hand corner to the place on the Google Map that you would like to see.

The reasons people travel haven’t changed much over the years. But how we look for information, about where we’ll go or what the local customs are has increasingly moved online. Google Trends tells us that the majority of tourism-related search queries are general--things like hotels or transportation options. But in Malta, called the “Gem of the Mediterranean,” as much as 43% of total tourism-related queries are focused on cultural attractions, historical sights, and famous buildings.

This kind of demand for information doesn’t just help Malta’s visitors find what they’re looking for--it has become a concrete opportunity for local tourism businesses and for cultural institutions to grow their audiences online.

There’s more. According to a soon-to-be-released report “The Impact of Online Content on European Tourism” carried out by Oxford Economics for Google in Southern European countries, clear and accessible online information can power growth in local economies. This in turn leads to new job creation and further GDP growth. This is particularly true and relevant for countries like Malta where tourism remains a significantly important economic sector, accounting for up 26% of the national GDP.

GOOGLE CAR WILL FEATURE COTONERA AND OLD MALTESE TOWNS AND CITIES

MTELLA' SETTEMBRU 18, 2016 - AĠĠORNATA 9 TA' MEJJU, 2017 3:00PM

Malta’s roads are about to enter into a further phase of the digital era. As from tomorrow Google will be working on its project Street Views and this will enable a worldwide audience in a few months’ time to have the possibility of exploring Malta’s roads and buildings on their computer, tablet or mobile.

For the first time Malta’s roads will appear on the internet via Google Maps, an initiative by this gigantic company which will enhance Malta’s tourism publicity. The project will start off tomorrow in Valletta’s roads via a car with a car-roof camera taking pictures from all angles.

These pictures will feature historical places as well as touristic attractions. The process will continue throughout October. Current plans for the virtual map of Malta’s roads will not only include Valletta’s roads but also roads in three Cotonera cities of Cospicua, Vittoriosa and Senglea, together with roads in Żabbar, Żejtun, Qormi, Żebbuġ, Siġġiewi, Rabat and Mdina.

Google began its Street Views project nine years ago in May following the success of its Google Maps.

To ensure privacy the pictures will not feature faces of passers-by and will not feature vehicle registration numbers as these will be screened off by specialised technology.

GOOGLE EYES MALTA'S STREETS FROM MONDAY.

Friday, September 16, 2016, 10:46

Technology giant Google will dispatch a car to Malta's streets to start shooting street-level images, a service which has stirred privacy issues in some countries.

Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which was launched in May 2007 and is currently available across 77 countries. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images.

Google said today it plans to start driving in Valletta, and will soon expand to other cities and villages. In total, it is planned to cover as much as possible of the road network starting from Monday and running until the end of October. Driving schedules often depend on various factors like weather and road closures. Permanent updates on Street View car locations as well as general information about Street View will be provided on website https://www.google.com/streetview/ as soon as driving starts.

It is planned to cover as much as possible of the road network starting from Monday and running until the end of October

Images collected will be processed and carefully stitched together, a technological process that can take several months. Users will be able to explore the imagery at a later date on Google Maps.

The service has stirred issues of privacy in other countries. Last June, India's interior ministry said it had rejected an application from the tech giant citing security concerns. In 2009, hundreds of pictures from the UK's Google's then new Street View service have been removed after concerns were voiced about invasion of privacy.

Google applies state-of-the-art technology to help identify and blur individual faces and licence plates on any imagery before it is made public. Once Street View imagery is available online, users can ask for further blurring.

Reporting an issue can be done by just clicking or tapping 'Report a problem' in the bottom-right of the image window or in Google Maps app, from the flag or menu buttons.

Incidentally, the service made the headlines earlier today, after Google’s street view cameras protected the privacy of a cow in Cambridge by blurring its face out.

The animal was photographed by the Google street view camera on a towpath at Coe Fen, in Cambridge. However, the software which is programmed to blur out human faces appears to have mistakenly given a passing cow the treatment.

GOOGLE STREET IMAGES TO START IN MALTA

Publication Date: Sep 19, 2016

Another milestone in the process to make available Maltese street images online through Google Street View will today start to materialise as announced by Google on the 16th September 2016. This process is another step further in the route of digitisation bringing Maltese street images available along side with that of most other countries. This is an opportunity to help further expose the beauty of our islands, our history, culture and characteristics through imagery. This is an incentive to further promote economic growth, particularly tourism and the promotion of the business sector.

Further to the meeting held between MITA and Google officials, way back in April 2015, MITA is looking for further collaboration with Google, to implement more exciting projects that exploit Google technologies. These are opportunities for our country to further grow our ICT sector by bringing over further tech giants to implement leading technologies locally, thus making our country more attractive for ICT business operators to set presence in Malta.

MITA believes that this is the way ahead to continue grow and strengthen our ICT sector and Malta’s ICT position within EU and our geographic region.

Google analyst in Malta to help SMEs grow through technology

MTELLA' LULJU 15, 2016 - AĠĠORNATA 15 TA' LULJU, 2016 12:02PM

A senior Google official has stated that the company is committed to continue helping small businesses to grow and become international. Enrico Bellini was addressing a conference on the use of digital technology in trade. The conference was organised by Nationalist Euro MP Therese Comodini Cachia.

Bellini, an analyst with Google, said the company was proud to have helped small companies expand their businesses. Bellini said that Google’s commitment was to strengthen its efforts with small enterprises through digital technology.

“We pledged to train up to 2 million European citizens by 2017 on digital skills, and that’s what we are doing today, and that’s what we plan to do in Europe for the years to come. We really believe that digital skills are essential in order to grow online for all businesses, from start ups to SMEs, and also consumers.”

Enrico Bellini was the main speaker in a one-day conference attended by over 300 delegates. Dr Therese Comodini Cachia, who organised the conference, said digital tools help the Maltese economy to develop and create more jobs. It is for this reason, Comodini Cachia said, that internet service providers should work to provide the best connectivity and speed at affordable prices.

Dr Comodini Cachia said studies have shown that small and medium enterprises making the best use of internet grow four times faster than companies which don’t use digital technology. The same companies create jobs at a faster rate, and have a 50% better chance of selling products and services outside their region. Comodini Cachia added that research by the European Union has shown that by the year 2020 European Union countries will have 825,000 work vacancies in ICT.